What’s your greatest strength?Where do you see yourself in five years?
Why are you interested in working with us?
We’re all too familiar with the traditional interview questions we’ve answered a thousand times. While frequently asked, these questions only provide interviewers with a glimpse into your personality, instead of helping them determine how you’ll perform in a particular role.
That’s why interviewers are shifting to behavioral interview questions. This style of interviewing uses past experiences as predictors of future performance.
Below we’ll cover how to prepare for behavioral interview questions and provide you with 30 behavioral interview questions you can practice with.
How to Answer Behavioral Questions
As you’re preparing for your interview, try the STAR technique.
- S-Situation: In which situation did the event occur?
- T-Task: What task were you working on? What were you trying to solve?
- A-Action: What actions were you taking to complete the task or solve the problem?
- R-Results: What happened? What were the results? Focus on how your actions benefited the company.
Other Tips for Answering Behavioral Questions
Along with the STAR technique, here are a few other tips to help make your interview successful.
Take your time. There’s nothing wrong with taking a moment before answering. Pausing will help you calm your nerves, think of an anecdote, and prevent you from rambling without accurately answering the question.
Be positive. Not every question asked is based on a positive experience. Interviewers want to know about problems and mistakes. Don’t be afraid to describe problems, but try to end on a positive note. For example, explain what you learned from the experience or how you solved the problem.
Prepare ahead of time. Practice common behavioral interview questions ahead of time using the STAR technique. We’ve included 30 common behavioral interview questions below:
30 Behavioral Interview Practice Questions
- How do you handle challenges?
- How do you handle making mistakes?
- Give me an example of a goal you reached and how you reached it?
- How do you prioritize your work demands?
- How do you approach teamwork?
- How do you handle disagreements at work?
- How do you motivate co-workers or employees?
- Tell me about a time when you worked closely with someone whose personality differed from yours.
- How do you go about getting information from someone who isn’t responsive?
- How do you go about making a good impression for clients?
- Have you ever fallen short of meeting a client’s expectations? How did you resolve the situation?
- Have you ever had to work with a troublesome client? What happened and how did you handle it?
- How do you prioritize all your customers’ needs?
- How do you handle pressure and how to you work through it?
- Have you ever worked within an organization that underwent massive change? How did you adapt?
- How do you go about learning your responsibilities in a new position?
- Tell me about a long-term project you managed. How did you keep things running according to plan?
- Tell me about a time when you persuaded someone to see things from your point of view.
- How do ensure that when you give instructions they are clearly understood?
- What is your proudest professional accomplishment?
- If you come across a problem at work that isn’t your responsibility, what do you do?
- Do you like to work under close or loose supervision? How would you handle either?
- How would you handle a difficult situation with a supervisor?
- Have you handled a difficult situation with another department?
- What do you do if you disagree with your boss?
- What would you do if you didn’t have any work to do?
- How would you implement an important but unpopular decision?
- Have you ever made a risky decision? Why? How did you handle it?
- Have you ever had to hold off making an important decision? Why?
- Have you ever dealt with a company policy you weren't in agreement with? How did you handle it?
